Science News

Images of oil-caked brown pelicans ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) have hit the front pages of countless U.S. newspapers and other media in the past week, driving home the still-growing impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. So far, dozens of pelicans have been transported to rescue centers for treatment. The number is only expected to rise as the oil spill spreads and covers Louisiana's Queen Bess Island Pelican Rookery and other important breeding sites.

It is quite a blow for a species that was on the endangered species list until just six months ago . It had taken brown pelicans nearly 50 years to recover from the devastating effects of DDT and other pesticides that nearly wiped them out. In fact, the species was nonextant in Louisiana and had to be reintroduced to the area from a colony in Florida. Queen Bess Island, one of the primary breeding sites responsible for the resurgence of the birds, had to be stabilized after oil companies nearly destroyed the local wetlands so they could lay pipes.

In a previous post, " Grassroots spying will make world peace possible," I argued that the spread of technologies that allow us to spy on each other might also make us safer. New York Press smacked me for having "elevated the idea of no-privacy to jaw-dropping levels." The writer, Matt Harvey, quotes some pro-privacy guy wondering whether my "pro-intelligence rhetoric" reflects my "clandestine corporate or intelligence connections."

Well, I do own a little Apple stock; I would have owned more but I sold most of it in February after my kids showed me an Internet video of Hitler ranting about the soon-to-be-released iPad ; naturally the stock subsequently soared. Also, I once consulted for the National Counterterrorism Center , an episode that I'll describe if someone asks nicely. But I promise that no insidious motives--unless yearning for peace counts as insidious--lurk beneath my hopes for omnidirectional spying.

When the body does not properly manage insulin levels, diabetes and other metabolic disorders are familiar outcomes. That hormonal imbalance, however, has also been linked to a higher risk for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia . And a new study has uncovered a potential pathway by which this metabolic hormone can upset the balance of a key neurotransmitter. [More]

By Rex Dalton

At the northern end of the Gulf of California, where the Baja peninsula joins the rest of Mexico, the world's most endangered marine mammal is inching closer to extinction.

With adults only 1.5 meters long, the vaquita ( Phocoena sinus ), a rare porpoise found only in these waters, epitomizes the plight of small cetaceans, which bear the brunt of pollution, ship traffic and fishing because they live in rivers and coastal areas. [More]

By Eric Hand

As an engineer, Subra Suresh has made a career of studying stress and fatigue: from aluminum alloys in planes and silicon wafers in chips, to the walls of cells infected with malaria. [More]

By Declan Butler

"Drug firms 'encouraged world health body to exaggerate swine flu threat'," screamed Britain's Daily Mail newspaper on June 4. [More]

By Kristen Hays

HOUSTON (Reuters) - British energy giant BP Plc said on Tuesday it had sharply increased the amount of oil it was capturing from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but it is not clear how much crude is still gushing out.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are no longer just gizmos in a geek's garage or military tools that fly reconnaissance missions considered too dangerous for humans. They are increasingly being used for scientific study. And this spring, a UAV dedicated to research science made aerial history.

On May 6, a diminutive aircraft called the Tempest was the first official UAV to intercept a supercell thunderstorm , the type of storm that produces tornadoes. The aircraft and its crew of engineers from the University of Colorado at Boulder (C.U.–Boulder) and meteorologists from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln are a critical part of an armada of 100 storm-chasing scientists conducting the largest study of tornadoes in history. The two-year field experiment known as VORTEX 2 , running from May 1 through to June 15 this year, will help scientists better understand when and how tornadoes form. Teams travel across the Midwest in tight formation chasing and surrounding tornadic storms to measure wind speed, temperature, humidity and pressure using mobile radar trucks, anemometers, disdrometers and balloon launchers.